On Jan 2, 2022, Ethiopia’s national television, EBC, broadcast an Amhara-extremist’s explicit call for a genocide against Tigrayans in Ethiopia. The former UC Davis professor Tilahun Yilma compared Tigrayans to a “cancer” that should be completely removed or eradicated so it never comes back. “If even one cell survives, it will replicate and destroy [the host]”.
This is what we must do now. When we talk about cancer, in addition to surgery, the person is treated with chemicals and radiation. This is because if a single cancer cell is left untreated, that left single cancer cell will expand and affect the whole body and kill that person. Woyane is a cancer. Hence, no single Woyane should be left and we should a program to hunt and kill all Woyanes.
Tilahun Yilma, Professor Emeritus, Medical Microbiology and Immunology, UC Davis
In response to the reaction from Tigrayans on social media, the former UC Davis professor sent the email below to other “intellectuals” of Amhara origin. Although the former professor denied using the term “cancer” to refer to all Tigrayans, his reference to “የወያኔ ሕዝብ” (“the Woyane population”) in the final paragraph, together with other pieces he had written previously, suggests that he was referring to the Tigrayan people rather than the ruling party (the TPLF).
